Not-so-common wealth

Delhi, 2010. History in the making.

This years commonwealth games have caught a lot of media attention and publicity…and with good reason, too. The tremendous media and public uproar that occurred following the exposure of photographs depicting the living conditions of the games villages was humiliating for India, to say the least. Photographs that made media headlines showed leaky toilets, stained washbasins and dirty beds – all intended for visiting athletes. What followed was an embarrassing international condemnation of India and the Indian government, inevitably established by the refusal of several athletes to participate in this year’s commonwealth.

But there’s another side to every story. Truth is, India has come a long way. What really exists in the country’s capital today are stadiums, arenas and villages of international standard. First class and quality products created and hosted by a ‘third world’ nation. But nobody ever told us that.

Thank heavens for blogs, facebook and youtube. The past three weeks has seen a complete shift in media representations of the commonwealth games. Thousands of Indians, enraged by the negative publicity that India was garnering went on a rampage of pro-India propaganda, determined to show the world what else was really happening. They were citizen journalists empowered by new media. Bloggers going on frenzy and filmmakers with a new found passion. My Facebook news feed for the past half a month has been clogged with groups, videos, photographs and status updates all showcasing and rooting for the newer, cleaner, more developed India. Possibly for the first time in the Indian context has the indi-media and non-mainstream broadcasts engaged so many people and elicited such a response.

Today, (finally!) all the Indian mainstream media have hopped on the bandwagon and are on a pro-India rampage.

Thank you, new media. On behalf of all the Indians of the world, thank you.